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Auction: 22066 - Historical Documents, Postal History & Autographs - Featuring the Robin Hunt Collection
Lot: 2002

Great Britain
Hast Hast, Post Hast Hast, With Dilegence
1618 (4 Feb.) entire letter headed "For His Majesties Affaires" sent from William Ward, Mayor of Dover to Lord Zouche, Warden of Cinque Ports, London, endorsed "Hast Hast, Post Hast Hast, With Dilegence" and further endorsed with times of arrival at Canterbury, Sittingborne, Rochester, Dartford and London having left Dover at 9 in the morning:
"Canterbury ... at noon
Sittingborne at three in the afternoon
Rochester att five o clock in the afternoon
Dartofrd at past 7 at night
London past 10 in the night".

Contents on separate leaf concern Lord Zouche's pinnace Silver Falcon, ready to sail for Virginia - "the pinnace sails at once, the shipps be in readyness & fully furnished".

Part wax seal remaining and some minor foxing commensurate with age. An immensely significant item with remarkably early relevance to settlement in Jamestown, Virginia.

provenance:
Gerald E. Wellburn

Notes: Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche (1556-1625), Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (1615-1625), remembered for his lone vote against the condemnation of Mary, Queen of Scots.

In May of 1607, voyagers aboard the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery settled in Jamestown, Virginia. By 1618 plantations had been established and workers were recruited to cultivate the lands and inhabit the settlement. The Journey of the Silver Falcon was surely of an entrepreneurial nature and is known to have multiple investors: Zouche suplied the boat and invested £200, Francis Augur the Ship's Steward provided commodoties for those on board which were estimated to be between £900 and £1,100 in value and Jacob Braems undertook to pay the wages of all aboard on their return. Rife with obstacles the ship would not set sail until 2 March 1619 with twenty-five men on board.

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Sold for
£7,000

Starting price
£2400